As modern aviation advances, the demand for ever-increasing flight envelopes and pilot performance grows. To help meet this demand on the aircraft and on the pilots, modern aircraft include impressive arrays of displays, instruments, and sensors designed to provide the pilot with menus, data, and graphical options intended to enhance pilot performance and overall safety of the aircraft and the passengers.
One type of display is known as a head-up display (HUD). A typical HUD includes an optical collimator that projects light onto an angled glass combiner located between the pilot and the windshield of the aircraft. The typical HUD faces directly forward from the pilot and the images are projected on the combiner to appear to be at optical infinity to the pilot. These optical requirements and costly HUD components restrict the size of the HUD and the field of view (FOV) that is visible to the sides of the HUD. For example, in crosswind landing scenarios where an aircraft is at a large angle relative to a runway, the runway may be outside the FOV of these typical HUDS. In such situations, the pilot may be unable to see both the runway and the beneficial flight information and runway overlays displayed on the HUD as the aircraft lands.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a HUD with a wider FOV and larger viewable area [“eye box”]. In addition, it is desirable to provide a HUD that is not limited to placement directly in front of a pilot. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.